LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 65 JLPT N5

Please Do This (〜てください)

〜てください attaches to a verb’s て-form to mean “please do this.” Swap in the negative て-form, 〜ないでください, and it flips to “please don’t.”

In Real Life
てください is built on the exact same て-form you already use for connecting actions and for 〜ている, it’s not a separate conjugation to learn, just a new job for a shape you already know.
In Real Life
ないでください is built the same way, just on the verb’s plain negative stem instead of the plain て-form: 撮る becomes 撮らない (don’t take), then 撮らないでください (please don’t take). It’s the polite version of the plain-form ないで from Without Doing, dressed up as a request instead of a connector.

Vocabulary

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